The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood

This week, I’m joined by Brandon Katz to talk about Parrot Analytics’s new report on the state of streaming and why the “winner take all” theory of the so-called streaming wars was always a little bit silly. We discuss what attracts viewers to the streaming services, what keeps them there once they sign up, and how Parrot Analytics measures “demand” for a show. If you love charts and data visualiz...

This week I’m joined by Sam Wasson to discuss his new book The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story , which chronicles the making of Apocalypse Now and the rise and fall of Coppola’s revolutionary studio, American Zoetrope. From technological innovations to the madness of Coppola’s effort to capture America’s first “Rock and Roll War,” the book is a fascinating glimpse into a radically d...

This week I’m thrilled to be joined by Whit Stillman, the director of, among other features, The Last Days of Disco , Barcelona , and Love and Friendship . He’s on the show today to discuss Metropolitan and the way it has been embraced as a classic Christmas movie , as well as the evolution of the indie film business over the last 40 years or so.  If you’re in Rochester or the surrounding environs...

On this week’s episode, Scott Mendelson returns to the show to discuss how 2023 shook out at the box office, why niche films and niche audiences became more important than ever to movie theaters, and whether or not studios are hiding that Wonka , The Color Purple , and next year’s Mean Girls remake are musicals because they’re worried about the impact on box office. Make sure to check out Scott’s...

This week I’m joined by Zach Schonfeld to discuss his new book, How Coppola Became Cage . Zach’s look at the early years of Nicolas Cage’s career is deeply researched, featuring interviews with directors like David Lynch ( Wild at Heart ), Mike Figgis ( Leaving Las Vegas ), and Cage’s own brother, Christopher Coppola ( Deadfall ). We talked about Cage’s mythmaking, his anger at being accused of be...

This week, I’m rejoined by Scott Eyman, author of Charlie Chaplin Vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided . We discussed the great silent star’s exile from America, how the press and the government conspired against Charlie Chaplin, the personal and professional perils of being prematurely anti-fascist, and why Buster Keaton seems to be more fashionable than The Tramp these days. If you...

This week I’m joined by Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator and showrunner of Moonlighting , to talk about that series’s long-awaited arrival on streaming. We discussed the show’s creation, the discovery of Bruce Willis, how he and costar Cybil Shepherd kept up with the show’s trademark rapid-fire patter, the difficulty in clearing music rights (and how Moonlighting was one of the first shows to heavi...

This week I’m joined by Terri Davies. Terri heads up the Motion Picture Association’s Trusted Partners Network, which helps studios and other partners develop best practices for avoiding leaks of films and TV shows pre-release, from pre- to post-production. We discussed her time at Sony Pictures from 2000 to 2015, a period of time during which the business of distribution was revolutionized (and d...

This week I’m joined by Walt Hickey, the author of You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything . Among the many topics discussed on this show: the surprisingly durable effect of Warner Bros.’s merchandising efforts aimed at adults; how identity and pop culture become hopelessly (and negatively) intertwined; and how violent movies can help stop violence from occurring. If you find t...

This week I’m rejoined by Jason Pargin to discuss his new novel, Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia , and the ways in which the futuristic panopticon he envisions for Zoey and the other citizens of Tabula Ra$a is a little like now, but moreso . We talk for a bit about how book marketing has evolved over the last decade-plus, why TikTok became a must for novelists like himself, and why despite the...

I’m joined by Matt Singer this week, author of Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever . The book, out this Tuesday, is a wide-ranging look at the myriad ways in which Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s seminal show—or, really, three shows, which ran across multiple networks over multiple decades—changed not only film criticism but film marketing as well. We talked about the intro...

This week, I’m thrilled to be joined by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker to discuss their new oral history, Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! In this episode we discuss, among other topics, what set the ZAZ style apart from other titans of the 1970s/1980s comedy boom, how the serious actors on set nailed their deadpan comic patter, trying to nail comic timing in...

This week I’m joined by Elaine Low of The Ankler and its Strikegeist newsletter to talk about the end of the WGA strike and what the writers won, from performance-based residuals on streaming originals to minimum writers room sizes to AI protections. We also discussed how the picket line and social media helped maintain solidarity and, briefly, how things are looking in the SAG-AFTRA strike. Make...

Before we get started: apologies for the downgrade in my audio quality about 10 minutes into this episode. My computer, unappreciative of the coffee I spilled on it earlier in the week, decided to restart itself mid-recording in protest. It shall be punished greatly. —— This week I’m joined by Brian Abrams, author of “You Talkin’ to Me?”: The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes . We discussed...

This week I’m rejoined by Jonathan Taplin, author of The End of Reality: How 4 Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto , to discuss the ways in which popular culture may be leading the public down a dark road. Mr. Taplin has previously been on the show to talk about his career in the entertainment business, from tour manager for Bob Dylan to producer of early M...

This week I talk to Ben Dreyfuss, formerly in charge of audience acquisition at Mother Jones and currently the author of the Calm Down Substack , about the promise and the peril of complete data transparency. Ben watched what happened firsthand as data about what readers wanted became more and more available to journalists: how it shaped what was written, and how, and for whom, and how this race f...

This week I’m joined by Anthony Penta, director of We Kill for Love , a documentary/film essay about the erotic thriller and its place in the history of cinema. Drawing parallels to film noir and gothic romances, among other genres, Penta traces not only the artistic legacy of We Kill for Love but also the role they played in the early days of home video rentals and pay cable. Hundreds of films me...

This week I’m joined by Chris Yogerst to discuss The Warner Brothers , his fascinating new look at the life of Jack, Harry, Sam, and Albert Warner, who collectively formed the Warner Bros. studio. From the technological innovations such as sound pursued by Sam, to the moral case for cinema made by Harry, to the classic mogul behavior of Jack, the journey of the brothers Warner makes for an interes...

This week I’m rejoined by The Entertainment Strategy Guy to talk about his two-part series on streaming flops (TV shows here ; movies here ). If hits pay for the misses, and we know what the hits are, shouldn’t we know what the misses are as well in order to make fewer of them? We discuss his methodology and then examine one buzzy title, Hijack , to see if it’s a hit or a flop and how to think abo...

This week I’m joined by Roy Price, the founder of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, to discuss what it would look like in 2023 to start a brand-new movie studio. Which genres are under-served? What price points should budgets be aimed at? And which audiences are looking for something they aren’t getting from the big studios? We also talk a bit about streaming networks and audience acquisition/retent...

Some backstory to this episode: last month I bought a ticket for  Sound of Freedom  because I was curious about the year’s most unexpected box office sensation. As the credits rolled, star Jim Caviezel came on the screen and gave a speech to the audience about the importance of theatrical exhibition; it’s the sort of thing you typically see at the start of movies these days, actors and directors t...

I’m rejoined this week by  The Wall Street Journal ’s Erich Schwartzel, author of  Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy , to talk about Hollywood’s disastrous summer in China, where virtually every American movie released so far has underperformed. We also talk briefly about why  Meg 2: The Trench  may end up being one of the lone bright spots for Hollywood th...

On this week’s episode Ryan Faughnder, author of the  Wide Shot newsletter , returns to the show to talk about Netflix’s softer-than-expected earnings report, the momentary bright spot at the box office, and the possibility that this strike is going to be going on for quite some time. If you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...

This week I’m rejoined by Jake Tapper, who is on the show to discuss his new historical novel  All the Demons Are Here , the third book in the Charlie and Margaret Marder Mysteries. It’s a great beach read and works as a standalone, but I still recommend checking out his previous novels as well to get the full scope of of the Marder family’s story. On this episode we discuss how the books have evo...

I’m happy to be rejoined by the first (and, perhaps one day, final) Bulwark Goes to Hollywood guest, Richard Rushfield of The Ankler ( subscribe today! ), to talk about Hollywood’s shaky summer. Nine-figure flops, the collapse of IP, labor woes, c-suite shakeups: it’s a weird time out west. How is the industry going to handle it? And what might the future look like? All that and more on this week’...